Creating our Public Works Story

Transcription

1 Creating our Public Works Story The Evolution of an Interactive Map Application for Rancho Cordova Public Works April 26 th, 2017 Brad Findlay, GIS Analyst Interwest Consulting Group

2 Overview Introduction About Rancho Cordova How the Public Works story map idea evolved The Challenges The Solutions & Workflow Review of the Application Questions

3 Interwest Consulting Group We specialize in integrating experienced staff into public agencies and delivering cost-effective, high quality solutions. Offices in California, Nevada and Colorado. 200 public agencies spanning multiple disciplines. Engineering, Building & Safety, Construction Management, and Transportation Planning. Currently employee 12 full time GIS Staff

4 City of Rancho Cordova Central Sacramento County between Mather Airport & ARP Incorporated July 2003 Population: 72,203 (2016) Over 3000 business 84 City Employees (including contract staff) 3 GIS Staff: 1 Full Time and 2 Part Time

5 Evolution of an Idea State of the City (November 2015) Public Works wanted a map to showcase projects Each project on map included: Description Photo Funding Sources (Local, Grants, Measure H, etc.) Status (Planned, Under Construction, Complete)

6 2015 State of the City Map STATUS PHOTO PROJECT NAME FUNDING DESCRIPTION

7 Community Enhancement Fund Funded by Measure H, a ½ cent local sales tax measure approved by Rancho Cordova Citizens in November Provides locally-controlled funds for local priorities. Generates approximately $6.8 million annually. Examples of projects include public art displays, historic building improvements, fields trips for school students, urban forestry, and much more.

8 2016 State of the City Map

9 2016 State of the City Map

10 Evolution of an Idea Maps / content gathering very time consuming Staff and Council really liked the maps Content stuck in static format not accessible January Starting thinking about and interactive digital version

11 Story Maps Interactive web applications created by Esri that feature: Media (pictures, videos) Descriptive text An interactive map interface (usually) MEDIA TEXT MAP

12 Story Maps Allow people and organizations to tell a story on any subject, such as their research, history, local amenities and events, or plans and projects. Esri has lots of templates and examples.

13 Evolution of an Idea Our map had all the elements of a Story Map Why not create an interactive version of our map? Met with key staff to discuss Selected a template: Story Map Tour Format encourages user interaction MEDIA MAP TEXT THUMBNAIL SCROLLER

14 The Challenge How to get content from 50 plus projects together without going insane in the process? We needed to: 1. Define list of projects to present in Story Map 2. Devise concise and effective project descriptions 3. Obtain attractive photos for each project 4. Gather funding information 5. Map the locations

15 The Challenge 6. Find an effective place to store the photos Story Map Creation can be time consuming! 7. Devise an efficient process to bring all elements together in a story map that can be updated on a regular basis.

16 Research Researched Story Map Tour creation methods Esri Story Map Tour exercise (2013) using CSV file to upload tour points 1) Download CSV template, 2) populate fields, 3) then upload everything at once. This process would be a great time saver! Plan: create point layer and export to CSV when done.

17 The Solutions 1. Altered schema of existing CIP Project database to include new information for Story Map User friendly Public Description Funding Sources Measure H Funding (Yes/No) Story Map Status (Yes/No) URL & Thumbnail URL & Is Video

18 The Solutions 2. Devised a schema for a point layer for each project Name Caption (Description with formatting tags) URL, Thumbnail URL, & Is Video Icon Color (Red, Blue, Green, Purple) Sort Order Latitude & Longitude

19 The Solutions 3. Created Excel table for staff to input Project Details (Project Descriptions, Funding, links to photos, etc.) Excel format Familiar for staff, everyone can access to add information (single user limitation) New entries assigned a Project ID (GIS link) MS Access Database linked to Projects table

20 The Solutions Story Map Projects table (Excel)

21 The Solutions 4. Created Photography guidelines for appealing project images. Intern to collect photos Hosted images in Flickr Admin support to gather links

22 The Solutions 5. Esri Model Builder: Model 1 Pull Project data from linked table in Access Update GIS Projects Table Reconcile edits (GIS Layers for Story Map are updated)*

23 COPIES LINKED TABLE IN MS ACCESS Model 1 CALCULATE PROJECT TABLE FIELDS JOIN TO CIP PROJECTS TABLE (SDE) RECONCILE VERSIONS

24 The Solutions 5. Esri Model Builder: Model 2 Populate attributes for Point Layer (Name, Caption, URLs, etc.) Set Icon Color (status) & Sort Order Export Project Locations to CSV

25 JOIN PROJECTS TABLE (SDE) TO TOUR POINTS Model 2 APPEND INTRO SLIDE UPDATE TOUR POINT VALUES CALCULATE ICON COLOR & SORT ORDER CALCULATE CAPTIONS EXPORT CSV

26 Workflow for Story Map Update Project Spreadsheet (Excel) MS Access Model 1 CIP Projects Table (SDE) Add New Project Points (ArcMap) CIP Improvement Layers (SDE): Point Line Poly Updated CIP Projects Table Model 2 Project Point Locations (File GDB) SDE Views Projects Locations CSV Project Locations Map Service Web Map (AGOL) Create Story Map Configure and Share

27 The Workflow ICON COLOR SORT ORDER CAPTION Locations.CSV

28 The Workflow ADVANCED OPTIONS CSV TEMPLATE DOWNLOAD OPTION

29 The Workflow Locations Loaded from CSV Icons colors as specified Sorted All captions done! Next just configure the look of your application.

30 The Application Legend Legend MAP REFERENCE

31 The Application FORMATTED CAPTION FUNDING & STATUS CONTACT INFO

32 The Application Went live late January 2017 Available via link on PW Plans and Projects Page Plan is to update quarterly (January, April, July, October). Works in web browser and mobile devices

33 The Application ArcGIS Online Statistics: Launch to Present SOFT LAUNCH COUNCIL TWEETS SACTO GIS USERS & ESRI GALLERY? LIVE ON CITY WEBSITE

34 Lessons Learned Everything takes 2-3 x as long as you think Project Descriptions were key to telling our story Flickr great but links can be time consuming Format photos as consistent size and aspect ratio Landscape photos work best CSV format uploads much more efficient than manual editing of story map

35 Questions?